A source said as Kate, 30, and her husband pressed on with their Asia tour:
“She sees it as greed.”

Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess received a rapturous welcome from the people
of the Solomon Islands today; tens of thousands cheered their future King
and Queen.

Riding along palm-tree lined roads on a flatbed lorry transformed to resemble
a symbolic war canoe and with garlands of flowers around their necks,
William and Kate appeared a world away from the furore that surrounds the
publication of the topless pics.

The pair waved and smiled back at crowds of cheering well-wishers as a
carnival atmosphere filled the royal couple’s five-mile route from the
airport into Honiara – capital of the South Pacific nation.

Locals Barbara Daufanamae, 21, and Frances Vahimana, 22, had waited for hours
in sweltering temperatures to see the royals, who are touring the region in
celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Ms Daufanamae summed up the mood when she said: “We are just so excited to see
them come here. I think almost everyone in Honiara is here.

“This is just so unexpected, it’s such a privilege for the country, out of all
the countries of the Pacific to have them come here is a privilege.

“Nothing really happens in town so when somebody comes, everybody comes out
and everybody goes crazy.”

Back in France where the photographer trained his lens on Kate as she
innocently sunbathed topless, police could take the snapper to court under
the country’s laws that protect privacy.

An aide confirmed: “If the French police choose to pursue criminal matters,
then we will support that.”

Wills, 30, was particularly incensed yesterday after Italian magazine Chi
announced it intends to run lots more photos from their chateau break across
26 pages tomorrow.

It was Chi that took the disgraceful decision in 2006 to publish photos of his
mother Princess Diana as she lay dying after a Paris car crash.

An aide said: “Kate is feeling like any young woman in that position would
feel. She sees it as greed, as does William.”

The paparazzi pictures of her — first published in French magazine Closer —
went global yesterday.

First the Irish Daily Star reprinted pages of Closer without bothering to
obscure the pictures of Kate.

Then Chi — a sister magazine of Closer — announced that tomorrow’s edition
will be a photo special on Kate under the headline: The Queen Is Nude. It is
feared more publications will follow, particularly those belonging to the
media empire of Chi and France Closer’s owner Silvio Berlusconi.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge put on a brave face yesterday as they
carried on with their official duties during a trip to Borneo.

But aides say the couple are furious at the gross breach of privacy.

A St James’s Palace spokesman said: “There can be no motivation for this
action other than greed.”

The pictures were taken with a long lens more than a mile from the South of
France chateau where the couple were holidaying.

Sources said they were talking to lawyers but have yet to decide whether to
launch further lawsuits.

Irish Daily Star editor Mike O’Kane yesterday defended the decision to reprint
the Closer pages with the topless pictures — saying he treated Kate like any
other star.

He added: “The Duchess would be no different to any other celebrity pictures
we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga.

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“Kate Middleton has married into a really privileged background. She has the
most fantastic life ahead of her and the most fantastic opportunities. Of
course, ordinary people are interested in that.”

Mr O’Kane insisted the Kate photos were merely holiday snaps. He added: “These
pictures are exactly what you would see on a family holiday on the beaches
of France and Spain.

“She’s not the future queen of Ireland so really the only place this is
causing fury seems to be in the UK, and they are very, very tasteful
pictures. I won’t apologise for that. Of course we are out to return a
profit to our shareholders.”

But media boss Richard Desmond — whose Northern and Shell firm jointly owns
the paper — was furious. Mr Desmond, whose company also owns the UK’s Daily
Star and Daily Express, said he was taking immediate action to end his
involvement with the Irish paper.

He added: “I am very angry at the decision to publish these photographs and am
taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture.”

In 2006 Chi published a picture of the dying Princess Diana being given oxygen
in a wrecked Mercedes in Paris. The then-editor caused revulsion when he
described the horror picture as “tender” and added: “She looks as if she is
a sleeping Princess.” At the time Prince William and his brother Harry said:
“We feel deeply saddened that such a low has been reached.” A month later
Chi was censured by the Italian privacy watchdog the Autorita Garante.

An Italian law expert said the Royals will have a strong case against Chi if
they chose to sue this time.

Dr David Erdos added: “Italy takes the issue of privacy far more seriously
than many other European countries. It has a privacy law which covers
journalism and is legally binding.

“It goes further than anything that is required by the European Union’s
Directive on Data Protection, on which it was based. Re-publication of the
photographs printed in Closer, or any previously unpublished photographs,
are likely to be regarded as an invasion of privacy. Furthermore the law
prevents publication of images which effect a person’s dignity. Under these
grounds Kate would have fairly strong grounds for preventing publication.”

Closer’s editor Laurence Pieau has said: “Intimate pictures exist that we
haven’t published and will not publish. Probably other newspapers will
choose to.”